Two people killed as Hurricane Idalia converts Florida mansions into small islands

Hurricane Idalia has caused a lot of damage on the beautiful Gulf Coast of Florida. It has flooded towns near the coast and sadly, two people have lost their lives.

Idalia arrived in Florida around 7. 45am It hit an area in Florida called the Big Bend region, which is a rural and not very crowded place that is also known as Florida’s ‘Nature Coast. ‘

In simple words, the Big Bend area doesn’t usually get directly affected by hurricanes. This made the National Weather Service in Tallahassee describe the storm as something extremely rare and unexpected.

Idalia hit the area of Keaton Beach, which is not officially part of a city, directly. Keaton Beach is about 22 miles south of Perry and 20 miles north of Steinhatchee, a town by the coast.
The town is located where the river meets the sea, and it experienced very bad flooding shortly after the storm came nearby.

At 730am, the Steinhatchee River was 0. 83 feet above its usual height.

By 745am, the height had increased by 2. 49 feet more than usual. Just one hour later, the National Weather Service measured that the water levels were 8. 02 feet above the normal average.

Videos from Steinhatchee show that the flooding was very bad. The flood was so bad that some buildings were surrounded by the rising river water and looked like islands.
The NOAA said the water at Cedar Key was 6. 8 feet higher than usual. The people living there were asked to leave by the government.

Most of the 900 people living on the islands left before the storm came, but a few locals and emergency workers stayed behind.

Videos posted by Cedar Key Fire Rescue show that the streets of the island are completely flooded with water from the sea.

The agency said, “We will need everyone to be patient. ” They said that the tide will keep rising until twelve o’clock in the afternoon. Most of the roads near the city center are covered in water.
Afterwards, the emergency workers said that propane tanks were exploding all over the island while the storm was happening.

They told us not to go to Cedar Key.

The police in Florida announced that two people have died because of the bad weather.

The first person died in Gainesville at around 6:00am on Wednesday morning. While driving in very heavy rain, a driver went off the road and hit the trees.

There was another death in Pasco County, near the Big Bend. The driver was going too fast and crashed into a tree after sliding off the road.